The Cement Garden

Download or read book The Cement Garden written by Ian McEwan and published by RosettaBooks. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Orphaned siblings create a macabre secret world for themselves in this “irresistibly readable” novel by the New York Times-bestselling author (The New York Review of Books). This “powerful and disconcerting” novel by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Children Act and Atonement (The Daily Telegraph) tells the story of a dying family who live in a dying part of the city. A father of four children decides, in an effort to make his garden easier to control, to pave it over. In the process, he has a heart attack and dies, leaving the cement garden unfinished and the children to the care of their mother. Soon after, the mother too dies and the children, fearful of being separated by social services, decide to cover up their parents’ deaths: they bury their mother in the cement garden. The story is told from the point of view of Jack, one of the sons, who is entering adolescence with all of its attendant curiosity and appetites. Julie, the eldest, is almost a grown woman. Sue is rather bookish and observes all that goes on around her. And Tom is the youngest and the baby of the lot. The children seem to manage in this perverse setting rather well—until Julie brings home a boyfriend who threatens their secret by asking too many questions. “[A] beautiful but disturbing novel.”—The AV Club “McEwan’s evocative detail and perfect British prose lend a genteel decorum to the death and decay that surround the family.”—The New Yorker

Download or read book Concrete Garden Projects written by Camilla Arvidsson and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2011-08-23 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For gardeners and backyard do-it-yourselfers, concrete is a revelation. It's durable, weatherproof, impossible to steal, and it provides much-needed insulation for outdoor plants. Concrete weathers beautifully, softening around the edges, developing moss, and becoming more picturesque with age. Concrete Garden Projects takes advantage of concrete's numerous assets, showcasing an inspiring array of creative options. The step-by-step instructions for dozens of easy, do-it-yourself décor ideas include containers of all shapes and sizes, elegant benches and stools, miniature ponds and birdbaths, stepping stones, a barbecue, and a fire pit. The authors use a variety of molds easily found or made, household items like bowls and baking pans, and simple wooden frames and boxes. At pennies per pound, and so simple to use—just mix with water and pour—concrete is the key to hand-crafted backyard décor.

Download or read book Ian McEwan Bestsellers written by Ian McEwan and published by Rosetta Books. This book was released on 2020-10-16 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These three bestselling novels by the Booker Award-winning author explore the dark sides of love, family and sexuality. The Child in Time On a routine Saturday morning trip to the supermarket, a father’s brief moment of distraction turns his life upside down when his daughter is kidnapped. His spiral of guilt and bereavement has effects on his marriage, his psyche—and time itself. The Cement Garden When their mother suddenly dies, four siblings hide her body in the basement to prevent others from discovering her death and placing them in foster care. But their dark secret sets them on a path of isolation and boundary-crossing intimacy. The Comfort of Strangers Colin and Mary are vacationing in Venice in hopes of reigniting their relationship. But after losing their way in the winding streets, their acquaintance with another couple takes turns that are likewise erotic and violent in nature.

Download or read book Making Concrete Garden Ornaments written by Sherri Warner Hunter and published by Lark Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A celebrated teacher has gathered the tried-and-true techniques used by sculptors and folk artists, and tailored them for low-tech surroundings. Work with molds; form over armatures; model or carve with concrete; and treat concrete surfaces with mosaics, embedded objects, incising, and coloring. For dazzling outdoor embellishments, craft a birdbath, a Little Lady Fountain, and more. Twenty-five projects in all.

Download or read book The Comfort of Strangers written by Ian McEwan and published by RosettaBooks. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A twisted relationship between two couples reaches a terrible climax in this novel by the New York Times-bestselling author of Machines Like Me. Colin and Mary are lovers on holiday in Italy, their relationship becoming increasingly problematic as they become increasingly alienated from one and other. They move from place to place in this foreign land but seemingly without aim or purpose, seemingly bored and without attachment. Then they meet a man named Robert and his disabled wife, Caroline. Colin and Mary seem happy for the diversion—happy to meet another couple that takes their focus off of each other for a while. But things become strange when they attempt to leave: Robert and Caroline insist that they stay with them for a while longer. While Mary and Colin do rediscover an erotic attraction to each other during this time, they also find that their relationship with Robert and Caroline is taking a dreadful and horrific turn, in this “fine novel” by the Booker Prize-winning author of Saturday and On Chesil Beach (New Statesman). “McEwan perfectly captures the thrill of travel when one is divorced from familiar surroundings and the chance of something unusual and out-of-character seems possible. Of course, this being a McEwan fiction, the possibility is a brutal truth about how people find love in extreme ways.”—The Daily Beast

Download or read book Concrete Planet written by Robert Courland and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-06-21 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concrete: We use it for our buildings, bridges, dams, and roads. We walk on it, drive on it, and many of us live and work within its walls. But very few of us know what it is. We take for granted this ubiquitous substance, which both literally and figuratively comprises much of modern civilization's constructed environment; yet the story of its creation and development features a cast of fascinating characters and remarkable historical episodes. Featuring a new epilogue on the Surfside condominium collapse and the current state of infrastructure in America, this book delves into this history, opening readers' eyes at every turn. In a lively narrative peppered with intriguing details, author Robert Courland describes how some of the most famous personalities of history became involved in the development and use of concrete-including King Herod the Great of Judea, the Roman emperor Hadrian, Thomas Edison (who once owned the largest concrete cement plant in the world), and architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Courland points to recent archaeological evidence suggesting that the discovery of concrete directly led to the Neolithic Revolution and the rise of the earliest civilizations. Much later, the Romans reached extraordinarily high standards for concrete production, showcasing their achievement in iconic buildings like the Coliseum and the Pantheon. Amazingly, with the fall of the Roman Empire, the secrets of concrete manufacturing were lost for over a millennium. The author explains that when concrete was rediscovered in the late eighteenth century it was initially viewed as an interesting novelty or, at best, a specialized building material suitable only for a narrow range of applications. It was only toward the end of the nineteenth century that the use of concrete exploded. During this rapid expansion, industry lobbyists tried to disguise the fact that modern concrete had certain defects and critical shortcomings. It is now recognized that modern concrete, unlike its Roman predecessor, gradually disintegrates with age. Compounding this problem is another distressing fact: the manufacture of concrete cement is a major contributor to global warming. Concrete Planet is filled with incredible stories, fascinating characters, surprising facts, and an array of intriguing insights into the building material that forms the basis of the infrastructure on which we depend.

Download or read book The Innocent written by Ian McEwan and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2010-12-22 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A member of a British-American surveillance team in Cold War Berlin finds himself in too deep in this "wholly entertaining" work (The Wall Street Journal) from the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement. Twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham’s intelligence work—tunneling under a Russian communications center to tap the phone lines to Moscow—offers him a welcome opportunity to begin shedding his own unwanted innocence, even if he is only a bit player in a grim international comedy of errors. His relationship with Maria Eckdorf, an enigmatic and beautiful West Berliner, likewise promises to loosen the bonds of his ordinary life. But the promise turns to horror in the course of one terrible evening—a night when Marnham learns just how much of his innocence he's willing to shed. Don’t miss Ian McEwan’s new novel, Lessons.